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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

It's really not even funny anymore. It's just annoying and absurd. Ed Willes, sports writer for The Province in Vancouver, is the latest to write unfounded stories about the Nashville Predators and their players. This time the target is Shea Weber.

Chris Burton of On the Forecheck, has a good piece that can be seen right here. Willes' piece is just another example of wishful thinking by members of the Canadian media. They have no clue what it's like down in Nashville. They have no clue about anything that goes on down here at all.

Willes claims that Weber might want to leave Nashville because he'd "like to win." Well, before I go any further, let's take a look at the history of the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks entered the NHL in 1970 as an expansion team. They have never won a Stanley Cup in the 40 years that they've been in the league. They have been to two Stanley Cup Finals in 1982 and 1994, losing both times. They are the only franchise currently in Canada that hasn't won a Stanley Cup. The reason I'm saying this is because Willes implied that the Canucks would be interested in Weber. If what he says is true, and Weber would "like to win", I don't think going to a place where zero championships have been won in 40 years would be very appealing. Willes really just tried to make this seem credible by quoting Paul Fenton, who is the assistant general manager of the Preds. He took quotes from Fenton that really had little significance, and tried to blow them out of proportion.

Shea Weber is the captain of our team and really seems to love it here. Weber hasn't said anything about wanting to go somewhere because he'd "like to win." Weber wasn't quoted in the story at all. In fact, as Chris Burton points out, Weber has commented on the contract situation. He simply said "I'm not going anywhere."

It's things like this that make me strongly dislike Vancouver. The unusual thing is that, with the exception of Dan Hamhuis, I really don't have a problem with the players of the team. It's the fans and the media. If you'll think back to 2007 when our franchise's security was in doubt, people from Vancouver were ripping on the city of Nashville. Ironically, the next year the Preds made the playoffs as the 8th seed. Vancouver missed the playoffs as the 9th seed.

As citizens of the greater Nashville area, and Predators fans, there's really just one thing we can do. Just ignore it. It's gotten to the point where it's not worth the time to even comment on it. The only reason I'm even writing a post about this is just to make people aware of where this news is coming from, and how unreliable it really is.

The Preds will play Wednesday night(Not Thursday night like Willes thinks. Go look at the photo of Shea Weber in the story and read the caption. Thumbs up for getting the day of the game wrong). Hopefully the Preds rip into the Canucks.

6 comments:

After reading your article I felt a need to respond. Every team would love to have Shea Weber . He is a great talent. He also happens to be from B.C. and has a large fan following We have watched him grow up and become a real Quality person as well as a very good nhler. Why does it make you so angry that other teams would want him? It should be taken as a compliment .Nashville is a very good ,well coached team and a worthy opponent for anyone.Tonights game should be great if both teams play with intensity like they can . I am a Canuck fan from Vancouver. I have never been to your city but would love to someday.Please Do Not judge all of the fans in Vancouver by the sillyness of some of our local so called sports writers . Thanks for listening.

Let me first say that I love the city of Vancouver and Canada as a whole. And I have absolutely no problem with fans, teams, or writers wanting players like Weber. I understand all of that. The problem I have is implication that Weber won't be able to win here. Nobody can possibly know if he will or won't. I really appreciate you taking the time to read and comment my friend.

Actually, the Ottawa Senators have never won the Cup either. They've only made it to the finals once, and lost.

Yes, it's true that a team named the Ottawa Senators won the Cup in the early 20th century, but that is not the same franchise.

It's also true that a team from Vancouver won the Cup in the early 20th century (the Vancouver Millionaires). While the current Vancouver Canucks organization recently purchsed all the rights to the old Millionaires team, no one would claim the Canucks now have a Cup to their credit.

Ottawa hasn't beem in the league as long as Vancouver so their futility streak is not as long. Toronto last won a Cup 3 years before Vancouver even joined the league, so they are (barely) more futile.

Dude, don't paint all vancouver fans with the brush given you by ed willes of all people. I don't know a single actual hockey fan who would pee on willes if he was on fire. You could make that same prediction with just about all the writers from either the Province or the Sun, with a very few exceptions. And as far as people ripping on nashville, myself and anyone I know who've actually been there have nothing but good things to say about your city. The internet is full of troll-ish punks who hurl out insults whenever there's some questions about the viability of any particular franchise (see: Coyotes, Phoenix), but anyone who is actually a functional member of society is unlikely to participate in that.